Convergence
by AboveTail
Summary: All Dexter wanted to do was to fix the mistakes of his past. Now, the parallel worlds are merging and it is up to the heroes of each world to band together if they have any hope of fixing reality before it tears itself in two. Dexter's Lab X Avengers X Justice League X Danny Phantom. More to come.
1. Things Go Boom

Chapter 1: The Incident

In the middle class suburbs of Townsville, CA, there is a house. A two story, three bedroom, two bath, yellow Cape Cod with an immaculate lawn—from an outsider's perspective, this house would appear to be a perfectly ordinary domicile with perfectly normal inhabitants. The owner of the house is a simple man with humble dreams—a typical office worker who makes his daily commute to and from the city each day to provide for his family. He has a wife, a sweet natured, fastidious and loving mother of two children—a daughter and a son.

Their eldest, Dee Dee, is much like her parents, she is a simple creature—blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty and a lover of dance, Dee Dee spends her days amongst her many friends as the queen bee of their local high school. Their son Dexter is the very picture of a typical nerd, a gangly teen with skin so white one wonders if it has ever felt the sun, thick eyeglasses that magnify his dark brown eyes to a comical effect, and a narrow face pitted with the characteristic acne of those suffering through the trials of puberty.

Dexter is not agile, he is not strong, and by no means is he handsome—but none of these things matter to him. Unlike the rest of his perfectly typical family, Dexter possesses a secret that allows him to transcend the petty tribal societies of high school, and ignore the social anguish that typically afflicts people like him. Inside of this typical house—up the stairs, to the left, behind a door covered in signs warning others to "Keep Out", there is a bookcase. On this bookcase there is an unassuming book titled "The Scientific Method", with no accredited author. There are no words within this bland looking tome—only a suspicious looking red button. One press of this button will cause the bookcase to open up and reveal a large metal door with a biometric scanner with handprint, iris and voice recognition technology. Engraved upon this door is a simple poem, a warning:

_Enter at your own peril_

_Past the vaulted door_

_Where impossible things may happen_

_That the world has never seen before_

(Townsville, Dexter's Lab)

It was only within the sterile confines of his lab that Dexter truly felt at home. Within this fortress of technological marvels, gears quietly turned, delicate instruments gently hummed, and the infinite secrets of the universe lay helpless before him, waiting to be unraveled as he toiled in obscurity. That was fine with Dexter though, he had never been much of a "people person" and years of self-imposed solitude within his safe haven had merely reinforced his misanthropic disposition. In fact, the only person he still spoke to regularly was his sister Dee Dee—though her "visits" to his lab had been growing more and more infrequent as they grew older. Sometimes, in his quiet moments Dexter wondered if the years of being referred to as 'moron', 'stupid', and 'troglodyte' as if they were her name had finally worn down Dee Dee's seemingly boundless resolve to connect with her only sibling. Dexter never dwelled on his social isolation for too long however—there was always work to do, things to invent and mysteries of science to solve. All in all, Dexter was content.

"Hi Dexter!" Dee Dee exclaimed loudly, her voice echoing in the cavernous space as she wrapped her bespectacled brother in a tight hug, "Whatcha doin'?"

"Bwah! DEE DEE!" Dexter shouted, face red from surprise, "What have I told you about interrupting me while I'm working! And how do you keep getting in here?"

"Ah c'mon little brother," Dee Dee said with a fond smile while ruffling the fuming teen's red hair, "you're ALWAYS working! Ever since you convinced Mom and Dad to let you be homeschooled I never see you anymore. You don't come out of the lab unless it's mealtime and even then you don't talk to any of us! We miss you! _I_ miss you!"

"Ahem," Dexter coughed, looking away to hide his blush, "that may be, but I have important work that I'm doing in here and I can't afford any delays for something as unimportant as social niceties." Now glaring at his sister, Dexter became more and more vehement, "Ever since I was little, I have been given a heavy burden—the burden of genius! It is my responsibility to mankind to put every effort into my studies! I can't just drop everything to chat with insipid morons who have nothing in common with me except for some shared DNA! I have an extremely busy schedule you know!" Pausing to take a breath, Dexter was cut off mid-rant by the hurt expression on his sister's normally happy face.

"Is that really how you feel about us Dexter?" Dee Dee asked in a too-quiet voice, "About Mom and Dad…about me?"

Dexter sighed and ran a hand through his disheveled mane. "No…I'm sorry Dee Dee, you know that I love you guys…but there is nothing out there for me. Not anymore."

"You can't let what happened to Mandark control your life any more, Dexter…you have to move on! Somebody had to stop him! It wasn't your fault!"

"Yes it was Dee Dee!" Dexter shouted in a voice cracked with pain, "I could have asked for help! I could have let the Powerpuff Girls handle him! I could have let the Justice Friends handle him! But I let my ego impair my judgment and tried to do everything myself!" Dexter hung his head, "and now," he whispered, "a brilliant scientist is dead because I couldn't bring myself to make peace out of petty spite."

The two siblings stood in silence for a few moments, both of them visibly upset by the direction that their first conversation in weeks had taken. "So…" Dee Dee said tentatively, "you never told me what it was that you were doing."

Silently grateful for the change in subject, Dexter turned back towards the computer screen that he had been glued to before his sister's arrival. "Complicated stuff…you wouldn't understand."

"C'mon Dexter," Dee Dee pleaded, "explain it to me, maybe it will help you figure something out if you talk about it with somebody. I happen to be a great listener!"

"That's a lie if I've ever heard one." Dexter muttered.

"What was that?"

"I said, might as well try, it can't hurt."

"Oh, OK then."

"Where to start…" Dexter said to himself as he began pacing in front of Dee Dee, "Have you ever heard of a man named Alan Guth?"

"Who?"

"Stupid question…of course you haven't. Anyways, Alan Guth is a physicist who proposed something called the inflationary theory of cosmology."

"Huh?"

"This theory states that when the universe began, instead of a gravitational pull to keep things together, there was a reverse type of gravitation working and instead repelled everything from it—a theory consistent with the discovery that our universe is constantly expanding-anyways, he coined this process of reverse gravitation, a "false vacuum."

"What?"

"Within this "false vacuum", there was nothing…no space, no time no particles…simply absence, however, at the time of the big bang, this "false vacuum" began to decay, creating amazing amounts of particles—the same particles as those which began our universe. According to his theory, the universe is much, much larger than anyone could have predicted, leading to an abundance of extra particles."

"Seriously, what?"

"These extra particles became bubbles, much like the bubble he believes began our universe. As the "false vacuum" continues to decay, and the universe expands, more bubbles—and more universes—are created."

"I have no idea…"

"From these conclusions, Guth proposed that besides our universe, there are an infinite number of _parallel universes_ with an infinite variety of permutations in the structure of matter. Or in other words, there are an infinite amount of alternate realities, each different from our own in some way."

"So what does that have to do with what you were doing?" Dee Dee asked with a yawn.

"If you would allow me to finish," Dexter snapped at her with a glare, "basically, what I am doing is searching for a way to bridge the gap between these alternate realities with a machine that I built utilizing the principles of my Space-Time Folding Device."

Suddenly Dexter was cut off by the soothing, synthesized female voice of his A.I. system. "Calculations Complete Dexter, Displaying Transdimensional Doorway Prototype Results."

"Excellent!" Dexter exclaimed with his trademark evil laugh, "these readings indicate that not only is Guth's theory concerning the existence of parallel universes correct, but that it is possible for these parallel universes to intersect with each other…even converge into one reality. COMPUTER! Fire up the Doorway! It is finally time to undo my mistakes of the past!"

"Dexter, what are you talking about?" Dee Dee shouted over the roar of the fusion reactors as they fed his device enough energy to power several cities.

"Don't you see Dee Dee? With this device, I can find a world where Mandark survived and I died! I can bring him to this world! I can finally return things to normal!"

"Dexter, stop! Mandark is gone! Just let it go!"

"Don't get in my way Dee Dee! This is none of your concern!"

"I'm not going to let you do this Dexter!"

"Just try and stop me, Moron!"

And with that, the two siblings began to fight over the control panel, one trying to shut it off, and the other to ensure that his designs went off without a hitch. But like every fight between Dexter and Dee Dee, property damage was inevitable. In the midst of their no holds barred battle, the control panel was struck by one of the many flailing limbs, upsetting the delicate and precise calculations that were required for dimensional traveling.

"The Transdimensional Doorway Is Now Fully Charged," COMPUTER's emotionless voice sang out, causing Dexter and Dee Dee to pause mid battle. "Now Opening Portal To XLG(#&E ."

"Huh," Dexter said with a distant voice as COMPUTER began to smoke and the portal began to discharge bolts of plasma and glowing with a bright blue light, "that does not sound good."

(Gotham City, docks)

Perched atop a metal storage container, wreathed in shadows, a dark figure loomed, silently watching a group of men on a ship load unmarked crates into the back truck in the dead of night. Still as a statue, the shadow watched with a cold fury the scurrying, fearless bustle of the criminal element that plagued the city…_his _city. He squeezed his hand into a fist and prepared himself for the assault. _"Six men, two of them armed. This will be easy."_

"Hey Vinnie," one of the men loading the truck called out to his partners-in-crime, "lend me a cigarette will ya? I'm freezing my ball off over here!"

"Sure thing Mac," one of the armed guards—Vinnie, apparently—replied, "soon as you get those weapons loaded up! You know that the Penguin don't take kindly to delays."

"Yeah, yeah," Mac muttered, "stingy bastard." Whatever Vinnie was going to say in response was cut off by the sound of a scream.

"What the hell was that?" Vinnie shouted, visibly shaken by the sudden noise.

"I think it came from over there!" another one of the workers shouted, pointing over by the railings of the ship.

"You idiots stay with the cargo, I'll go check it out!" Vinnie barked, hiding his fear behind a commanding voice. "I swear to god if somebody's messin' with me I'll kill'em." He growled as he approached the area that he had heard the scream come from. "Oh god," Vinnie breathed as he saw his only other armed backup dangling like a puppet from some sort of cable.

"Not God," a deep voice growled behind Vinnie, "ME." Turning around quickly, Vinnie saw nothing...and the world exploded into pain. With the two armed thugs dealt with, dispatching the remaining scum and ascertaining the drop point for the smuggled weaponry was child's play. Activating his mapping system, Batman input the address of the drop point into his real-time computer mapping system and prepared to follow the lead when suddenly a massive burst of bright blue energy plumed across the sky, illuminating all of Gotham as brightly as the middle of the day for an instant. Almost immediately, his mapping system went haywire.

"Master Bruce, are you alright? I have just picked up some very unusual readings from your batsuit."

Batman put two fingers to his communicator, "I'm fine Alfred, but my computer systems seem to be malfunctioning—buildings, towns, and even cities are starting to appear on the map that weren't there just a moment ago. New York, California, Minnesota…can you confirm on your side as well?"

"Let me see…what the devil? How odd, the computer here is saying the same thing as well. It is as if they appeared out of thin air."

"Send out a call to the Justice League Alfred. I have a feeling that things are going to get very ugly."

(Above New York City, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier)

Nick Fury sat at his desk with a scowl on his face. This was not out of the ordinary. It was a running joke throughout the staff of S.H.I.E.L.D. that a scowl was, is fact, their boss' default expression, and that every time he smiled, somewhere, a terrorist had died. On this particular evening however, his trademark glower was a little bit more intense than usual. It had only been a few weeks after the Chitauri invasion and the clean up of NYC was going frustratingly slow on top of everything else dumped in Fury's lap.

"_Still,_" he mused with a grimace, "_this is better than the alternative—a nuclear wasteland._" Fury never said it out loud, but the last few months of dealing with superpowered beings—and superpowered egos—had been worth the sadistic satisfaction of watching the quiet destruction of the man who had ordered a nuclear strike against the most populous—and iconic—city in the United States.

"Fury! How's my favorite one-eye spy?" Unbidden, the grinning holographic face of Tony Stark: genius playboy billionaire philanthropist, creator of the powerful Iron Man armor, and the single most infuriating man Fury had ever met, popped up in front of him.

"_Speaking of superpowered egos…"_

"Stark!" Fury growled menacingly, "How did you access this private channel? You would have had to—"

"Hack your security and communications network?" Tony interrupted with a smug expression on his face, "I had twenty minutes to kill and thought, 'Hey, I wonder what Director Sourpuss is up to?'"

Fury snarled and pressed the intercom button. "Johnson, get the technical team in here…we need to upgrade our security protocols! _Again_." Fury pinched his nose in frustration and turned to face the grinning hologram once more. "What is it that you want Stark? This had better be important! I'm up to my ears in the fallout from the invasion."

"Well, it's funny that you should mention that…"

"What did you do?" Fury demanded, seeing red.

"Hey hey hey!" Tony protested, "Don't shoot the messenger! I've just been picking up some unusual energy readings similar to the device that opened the portal during the invasion. Thought you ought to know."

Fury's anger at the insufferable genius drained away and was replaced by dread. "How strong are the readings?" he asked in a deadly serious voice, "Where are they originating from?"

"Well to answer your first question, they're strong—and getting stronger every second. Exponentially so." Tony shrugged, "As to your second question, I couldn't tell you. Maybe Dr. Banner could figure it out, but as far as I can tell, the energy readings are coming from _everywhere_."

Fury's eye widened at the news. "What do you mean _everywhere_, Stark? I'm going to need more helpful details than that if we are going to figure this mess out!"

"Well that's just it Nicky boy, I've run multiple scans with what I have—and trust me, what I have is _very _good—but it seems as if the entire planet is being saturated with this energy."

"Run more tests!" Fury ordered, "I'm going to find Banner and see if we can't learn more about this mysterious energy."

Tony smirked, and gave Fury a mocking salute, "Aye aye sir!"

The bearded billionaire's face disappeared from his desk and Fury pinched his nose in a vain attempt to stave off the impending headache. "_This is not what I needed right now._"

(Amity Park, Streets)

The sun was just beginning to set in a small town as a boy with snow-white hair frantically dodged blasts of green energy from a hulking figure with a head that appeared to be wreathed in flames.

"Jeez, Skulker! When will you ever give up?" The teen taunted his assailant as he fired off a few blasts of energy himself. "You'd think after so many attempts you would have learned by now! Have you considered taking up knitting?"

"Silence, Ghost-child!" The cybernetic menace shouted with an annoyed look on his face, "I will not stop until I mount your head on my wall!"

"Dude, ew."

"Danny!" a teenage girl with dark makeup and a plaid mini-skirt and what appeared to be a thermos in her hand yelled to the ghostly teen, "Catch!"

With a cocky grin on his face, Danny caught the Thermos in his hand and opened it up, pointing the beverage holder at the villainous ghost. "Ah, the good old Fenton Thermos, say goodnight Sparky!"

"What!" Skulker shouted in panic as waves of ectoplasmic energy began to draw him into the tiny prison, "Noooo! Hear this Ghost-child! The greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone will be back! You will be my trophy!" And with a particularly satisfying _ding_, the power-armored hunter was trapped.

Danny Fenton, AKA Danny Phantom let out a sigh of relief as a white ring appeared at his midsection and split into two, running up and down his body and returning him to his normal state of a dark-haired, blue-eyed teenager. Looking at the Thermos in his hand he gave it a soft rap with his knuckles and grinned, "Whenever you're up for another swift beating Sparky."

"Danny!" the teenage girl yelled as she pulled him into a hug, "I'm so glad you're OK!"

Danny sheepishly grinned with a slight blush on his face, "Nothing to worry about Sam. I've fought that loser so many times I totally have his number now."

"Yeah Sam," an African-American teen with a red beret chimed in with a smirk on his face, "between Danny's experience, and my trusty PDA, there's no way that creep stands a chance! Look," he said making a sweeping gesture at the street and buildings that were littered with the scars of the recent battle, "there was barely even any property damage this time! No sweat!"

Sam huffed in frustration, "Well in case you two have forgotten, Skulker has almost killed us a dozen times! Danny, he wants to mount you on a wall like some kind of trophy! That's worth taking seriously, Tucker!" With this scathing tirade, the young Goth glared at her two friends.

The two grinning boys grew somber with this grim reminder, but quickly bounced back from the serious mood. "C'mon Sam!" Danny said with a conciliatory gesture, "We can worry about all of that stuff later! We beat him this time and that's all that matters right now!" Danny looked at his watch and grinned, "And we still have some time to kill before curfew! I'm starving! How about we get some Nasty Burger!"

"I'm so in!" Tucker exclaimed, rubbing his stomach, "Kicking ghost butt always leaves me with an insatiable craving for meat!"

Sam shuddered at the thought of the unhygienically cooked slab of road kill that her two friends called a 'decent meal'. "I don't understand how you two can eat that garbage," she said disapprovingly, "but I'll come and sit with you guys."

"Awesome," Danny said, "let's get going!"

The trio of best friend began their walk through the tiny town where they lived to the local burger joint, cracking jokes, laughing and all in all having a great time when the twilight sky suddenly exploded with an immense crackling light. "What the heck was that?!" Sam exclaimed in shock, rubbing her eyes.

Sam and Tucker looked to Danny, but the dark-haired boy merely shrugged. "I couldn't tell you guys…my ghost sense isn't going off at all. Whatever that was, it doesn't have anything to do with ghosts."

Tucker looked incredulous; "Well it certainly looked like something ghostly!" he replied with a shiver, "last time I got a bad feeling like this, the Ghost King ripped our town into the Ghost Zone!"

Danny chuckled nervously, "Don't be ridiculous, Tucker!" he gestured around the town, "Look! There's nothing different, it must have just been some freak astrological occurrence."

Sam gave both of her friends a deadpan glance, "And since when does something like that happen in _this _town and it turn out to be nothing?" She wrung her hands in worry, "It's _always_ something!"

"Oh C'mon Sam," Danny said, now visibly worried, "you're just being pessimistic."

"I'm a Goth, remember—pessimism kind of comes with the deal."

"Oh. Right." Danny turned to his techno savvy friend, "Hey Tucker, can you check on your PDA to see if there is anything unusual going on, just in case?"

Tucker bit his lip and pulled out his high functioning device. "Sure thing Danny, let me see here…huh, that's weird."

"_Oh, great." _Both Danny and Sam thought at the same time.

"This is really strange," Tucker said with a perplexed look on his face, "I'm suddenly receiving an enormous amount of reception from unknown providers—which should never happen since I hacked it to receive coverage from every telecommunications satellite in orbit already."

Danny and Sam looked at each other for a moment and then turned to face Tucker once more. "So that means what, exactly?" They asked in perfect stereo.

Tucker looked at them with honest confusion on his face. "It means that either several dozen new satellites from several unknown entities were just launched simultaneously AND I never heard about it, or…"

"Or what?" Danny asked.

"Or they just appeared out of thin air." Tucker finished.

* * *

Next Time on Convergence: Justice League: Assemble!

**AN: Well folks, I have to say that this is probably going to be the most ambitious attempt at story telling I have ever attempted. The idea came to me while was watching Dexter's Lab on Netflix and I realized that he must have created a pocket dimension within the walls of his house for a structure that large to remain undetected. If he could do that, then I figured he would be able to pull off something as colossally complicated as a merging of multiple universes. Marvel, DC, Dexter's Lab, and Danny Phantom have been caught in the crossfire so far, but it remains to see if the anomaly will spread to include other universes. Please comment if this strikes your fancy.**


	2. Justice League: Assemble!

Convergence Chapter 2

Justice League: Assemble!

(Gotham City, Rooftops)

"Alfred, once you've finished alerting the Justice League to this development I want you to go ahead and contact Commissioner Gordon and let him know the details of the Penguin's weapon stash. I think he will be very interested to see what kind of hardware is being brought into the city."

"Sir?" Alfred's surprise shone through his usually dry tone, "You aren't going to follow up on this lead yourself? You have been tracking Mr. Cobblepot's weapons dealing business for weeks now."

Batman clenched his jaw tightly and growled in annoyance. "I know Alfred. But if that blue wave of energy and those towns and cities appearing out of nowhere are connected than something much bigger than some smuggled weapons."

"It may very well be, sir." Alfred replied, "The Batwing is on route to your position now. I will inform the good Commissioner of the illicit materials now."

As Batman waited in the shadows of the rundown Gotham rooftop his mind raced with possibilities as he put together theories of what these mysterious happenings might mean—and what possible consequences might result from them. In what seemed like no time at all, the Dark Knight was snapped out of his brooding by the distinctive roar of his top of the line aircraft's engines and with a swift, fluid motion that could only be the result of thousands of repetitions, Batman drew his grappling gun from its utility pouch, launched it with pinpoint precision at his ride home and disappeared from the rooftop with a soft _whoosh_ of his cape.

(Batcave)

Thousands of screeching bats fled the sanctuary of the massive cavern as the Batwing's engines powered down in deafening roar within the confined space. After climbing down from the lowered pilot's seat onto the landing pad, Batman wasted no time with pleasantries. "What's the status with Gordon?" he bluntly inquired, "Have the police picked up the weapons shipment and the suspects yet?"

"Welcome back Master Bruce," Alfred replied without blinking at the immediate inquiry, being long accustomed to his employer's no-nonsense attitude, "the chatter from the police scanner indicates that the ruffians from the dock are now in police custody. No doubt they are being questioned by the authorities as we speak."

"Good," Batman replied as he strode over to his massive computer and began to type in commands, "now we can only hope that the police will be able to make something stick to the Penguin this time."

"If we should be so lucky sir."

Batman grunted at his butler's dry response and continued to type instructions into the Batcomputer. "I'm going up to the Watchtower Alfred, I'll probably be gone for a couple of days, maybe longer. Contact Nightwing and ask him to watch over Gotham until I return."

"Of course sir, it will be a pleasure to see Master Dick again. It has been far too long."

Without another word, Batman walked over to a high tech looking pad on another section of the floor and gave Alfred a curt nod. "Wish me luck Alfred." Batman said before dematerializing and leaving the elderly butler alone in the cave.

"Good luck Master Bruce." Alfred whispered softly to himself before setting of to do the vigilante's bidding.

(Earth's Orbit, The Watchtower)

To the outside observer, it would appear that Batman was completely unfazed by the process of teleporting, but the Caped Crusader truthfully hated it with a passion. Despite his unerringly logical mind and reliance on gadgets, Batman found the idea of having his entire atomic structure torn to shreds and reassemble somewhere else completely unnerving—so when the first thing Batman said to the Flash after being bombarded with questions the moment he stepped off of the teleporter was 'shut up'.

"Geez Bats," the amicable speedster asked with a grin, "did you sleep on the wrong side of the cave this morning?"

"Not now!" Batman snarled, glaring at Flash before looking to the rest of the gathered superheroes in the room, "Conference Room, now!" Not bothering to question their moody teammate at the moment, the rest of the Justice League merely shrugged and made their way over to the aforementioned Conference Room.

"So what do you think this is all about, GL?" a winged woman carrying a mace asked the dark-skinned man walking beside her.

"I don't know Shayera," Green Lantern replied honestly, "but it must be pretty serious if it's getting Batman so worked up."

"Good," Hawkgirl replied with a grin on her face as she cracked her knuckles, "it's been too long since I've had a decent fight!"

The intergalactic cop shook his head, "You know," he said with a hint of humor in his deep voice, "most people try to avoid getting in fights."

"Then you must not know many Thanagarians," she replied, "and besides, if you are looking to avoid fights, than I'd say you got in the wrong line of work, John."

Green Lantern grinned as they entered the Conference Room and took their seats at the large table, "Well," he replied, "I never said that I was most people did I?"

"Alright everybody," Superman said in his calm voice, causing all of the chatter in the room to instantly go quiet, "as you know, Batman has gathered us here for urgent reason and it's time we find out what that reason is…go ahead Batman."

Batman nodded at the last son of Krypton and began to speak, "At 2315 hours this evening, a blue wave of energy appeared over Gotham Harbor and exploded outward in all directions. Following this event, my mapping system began to show some startling anomalies." Batman pressed a button on the conference table, displaying a holographic map of the United States. "Minnesota, California, New York…entire cities as well as other unexplained structures began appearing out of nowhere, and as I continued to investigate the phenomenon I found similar reports of mysterious blue lights coming in from all over the globe—not just the United States, as I initially thought."

"Yeah," the Flash cut in with wide eyes, "while I was out on patrol I saw that freaky blue light too, but after nothing happened I figured it was just some weird astral trick of the light."

"This seems serious," Superman added with a solemn look on his face, "where else did these reports come in from Batman?"

"We have reports coming in from Bialya and Pokolistan, South Africa, the Pacific and Eastern Europe. Some of the reports are difficult to believe, in one case, an entre island appeared out of nowhere."

"But what does this mean?" The Dark haired Amazonian Princess, Wonder Woman asked.

"It's too early to say," Batman replied, "but we can safely assume that incredibly powerful forces are at work. I wouldn't put the interference of alternate realities out of consideration."

"Alternate realities?" Shayera repeated with concern in her voice, "Do you think the Justice Lords could be involved in this?" At the mention of their tyrannical counterparts from another dimension the gathered heroes suppressed a collective cringe.

"That's impossible," Green Lantern replied with a scowl and crossed arms, "we neutralized the Justice Lords, they're behind bars and trapped in their own dimension."

"Don't be so sure," the green-skinned Manhunter from Mars, who had been silent up till now replied, "if they found their way here once, who is to say that they could not do so again."

"I doubt it as well," Batman said confidently, "if it were the Justice Lords, I believe they would have played their hand by now—they would hit us hard and fast before we had a chance to organize ourselves against them. But I do have another suspect." Pressing another button on the console he pulled up a series of profiles that caused the rest of the team to let out a breath of shock.

"The Injustice Syndicate…" Superman breathed with a look of unease on his face. "The last time we faced them, all of reality was nearly destroyed!"

"I don't know," the Flash chimed in with a skeptical expression, "when we left the Syndicate, the only man who knew how to work their dimensional gateway was dead, and my counterpart was left as an old man. I don't see how it could have been them."

"Perhaps you are right," Batman allowed, "but if Owlman is half as resourceful as I believe he is than he found a way off that planet before the bomb exploded, leaving him and the Syndicate free to plot their revenge."

"Well no matter who is behind this," Wonder Woman added, "the fact remains that we still need to investigate the appearance of these new cities and the significance of the blue lights."

"You're right Diana," Superman agreed, "we should split up and investigate as many of these anomalies as possible. We can start with the ones that appeared in America first."

"Caution would be advised," Martian Manhunter added, eyes glowing red, "I have done a psychic sweep of many of these unknown locations and detected enormous spikes in metahuman activity. Perhaps it would be best if we investigated in teams."

"Good work J'onn," Superman said, "were you able to determine the areas with the greatest danger?"

"I believe so," the shapeshifter replied, "while it is difficult for me to get a read on the locations in California and Minnesota, a simple scan of New York has revealed the densest population of metahumans that I have ever encountered. I would advise extreme caution."

"Thanks for the heads up," Green Lantern said, rubbing his power ring, "I'll handle New York."

"Not alone." Batman stated with finality, "Superman, J'onn and I will be there as well. Flash and Wonder Woman will take the city in California. Shayera, you'll handle the city in Minnesota alone."

"What?" Hawkgirl burst out in indignation, "All of you get to head to the cities where all of the action is while I have to go out to the middle of nowhere?"

"Yes." Batman growled at the Thanagarian warrior, "Unless you would prefer to stay here and man the Watchtower."

The two cowl-wearing heroes glared at each other for a tense moment before the winged woman finally relented. "Fine," she bitterly ground out before stomping off towards the teleporter pad, "but if I don't see any action while I'm there I'm taking it out of _your_ hide!"

Zipping over next to Wonder Woman, Flash winked at his assigned partner and grinned, "Well _I _certainly don't have any problems with the way things turned out! You ready to rock Princess?"

Wonder Woman rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop herself from smiling at the Flash's antics, "Why don't you keep your mind on the task at hand hot stuff?" she replied with a teasing grin, "Unless you want to be the fastest hospitalized man alive."

"Ooh, feisty," Flash said to himself with a grin as he watched the immortal princess walk out the door, "this is going to _fun_!" And in the blink of an eye, he was gone as well.

"Let's take the Javelin," Batman said to the three remaining members of the team in the room, "teleporting unannounced into the new metahuman capital of the world may be a bad idea."

Green Lantern, Superman and the Martian Manhunter all looked at each other and nodded. "Good point." They all replied simultaneously.

"Alright then," Green Lantern said, "let's get going then—and see if we can avoid all that New York traffic."

* * *

Next time on Convergence: The Phantom Menace

**AN: Alright, here it is—Chapter 2. Just the Justice League this time, but don't worry, the other characters will be popping up again very soon. As always, if you liked the story, hated it, or if you think there is something that I could have done better, feel free to utilize that review space below this comment. Until next time!**


	3. The Phantom Menace

Convergence: Chapter 3

The Phantom Menace

(Outside Amity Park)

Shayera let out a sigh as she materialized into a moonlit clearing outside of the small Minnesota city. "_I just know that this is going to be a complete waste of my time_." she thought grumpily as her sharp Thanagarian eyes gazed upon a beaten sign which read "Amity Park: A Nice Place to Live!"

"_Might as well just get this over with._" The alien warrior stretched her wings and took off in flight without a sound, hoping that she could learn what she needed to with a quick flyby and be on her way. "_Just look at this place,_" she mused, checking the position of the moon, "_it's maybe only 10:30PM and there's not a single person on the streets…this place is like a ghost town._" Shayera continued to fly over the deserted streets of the city until something strange caught her attention: a poster on a building with a picture of a teenager with white hair and glowing eyes in a HAZMAT suit. It read: "Wanted Dead: Inviso-Bill. Considered to be Armed and Extremely Dangerous!"

"These people want some teenager dead?" Shayera exclaimed in disgust, wondering what a kid could have done to provoke such a sentiment, but added, "And what kind of name is Inviso-Bill?" Despite her moral outrage at the people of a city wishing for the death of a child, Shayera couldn't help but feel a little bit of excitement at the prospect that her foray out into the sticks had not been an utter waste of time.

With her curiosity now officially piqued, Shayera set out in search of more information concerning the enigmatic 'Inviso-Bill', and the longer she searched, the more questions about this seemingly normal city arose. "Remember The Curfew!" a poster slapped haphazardly to a side of a bus stop read. "Never Travel Alone!" said another in bold, urgent script. "_OK,_" the super heroine thought to herself as a cold wind blew through the deserted night streets, "_this place is seriously creepy. What on earth is going on here?_"

For nearly an hour, Shayera patrolled the empty city, hoping to find somebody who could tell her what was going on, but to no avail. What she did find were obvious signs of battle; entire sections of the city were filled with ruined buildings, scorched vehicles, and streets marred by what appeared to be small-scale explosions. Seeing a level of destruction in this unknown city equal to the kind of fallout from a League-level battle shocked Shayera to her core. "Was all of this the work of that kid?" she asked the abandoned remains of what was once an apartment building. "No teenager could of done this unless…they were a metahuman. An extremely powerful metahuman at that." Shayera grinned, "Looks like I ended up getting the good assignment after all. " she said as she fingered her mace in anticipation of battle, "This is going to be a fun one."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." a deep voice chuckled behind the Thanagarian warrior, causing her to gasp in alarm and spin around to find a grinning mechanical monster with electric green eyes and flaming hair of the same color floating behind her with a blaster of some kind pointed directly at her head. "I've never seen a human with wings before," he mused with the kind of grin a shark would wear before devouring its prey, "you should make an excellent addition to my collection!"

"_That's impossible!_" Shayera thought, shocked, "_How did something so big sneak up on me? I just searched this entire area a moment ago, he would have had to have been invisible_!" She narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her mace, "Who and what are you?" she growled at the grinning predator, "You better give me some answers before I turn you into a pile of scrap!"

The monster laughed at the threat but responded anyways. "My name is Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! And I already know what you are…my newest trophy!" Skulker never dropped his grin as he fired his blaster, which released a glowing green net intended to entangle Shayera, who swung her mace at the projectile and caused it to fizzle out on contact with the Nth metal weapon. Skulker frowned for a moment, but simply shrugged and grinned at Shayera once more. "Hmm," he said, "what an interesting weapon, I've never seen something cut through one of my nets so easily…but it doesn't really matter, I would have been disappointed if this hunt ended so easily. Now it will be that much more satisfying when I stuff your corpse and place it on my mantle!"

Shayera snarled as she made a beeline for the grinning hunter, "Stuff this!" she shouted as she swung her mace with all of her might at her assailant, only for it to phase through him harmlessly as his form turned translucent. Overbalanced from her wasted strike, Shayera let out a howl of pain as the ghost became opaque once more and nailed her in the midsection with an electrically charged punch. Quickly regaining her senses, she swiftly retreated to a safer distance while she considered this new development. Drawing on her military training and vast combat experience, Shayera let out a deep breath and calmed herself, reflexively avoiding and deflecting the relentless energy blasts he sent her way. As the ghostly hunter became more and more frustrated with his inability to tag his evasive foe, he threw out more and more of his arsenal: rockets, flamethrowers, as well as various different kinds of snares.

Skulker growled in anger, "Stand and fight me coward!" he shouted, "or do you plan to simply flee like a frightened rabbit? Either way, your head will adorn my fireplace!"

"_OK, that's enough,_" Shayera thought to herself as she prepared herself to take the initiative, "_Time to review what I know about this clown. Strengths: He can fly, has super strength and become invisible and intangible like J'onn, he can fire various kinds of energy beams and create constructs out of the same energy like GL, and he's got as nearly as many gadgets as Batman._" She grimaced; this was not going to be easy. "_Weaknesses: he's arrogant—he has no doubt in his mind that he will be the victor; he has a sense of fair play—he could have easily taken me out before I even knew he was there, but chose to alert me to his presence instead; finally, he's a ghost—the supernatural energy that he is made of is disrupted by Nth metal._"

"Well," Shayera said, "here goes nothing." And with those words, she charged.

(Fentonworks, Danny's Room)

"This totally bites!" Danny complained to his sister Jazz, "Not only does the town totally want me dead, but ever since that blue light appeared a week ago, ghost activity has been going absolutely nuts! I haven't had time for schoolwork, or even been able to hang out with Tucker and Sam!" The teen buried his face in his hands, "I don't know what's going to kill me first—the ghosts, or Mom and Dad when they see my report card!"

"Cheer up, Danny!" Jazz said in the most comforting voice she could muster up, "Amity Park has been through crisis's like this before and we've always been able to see it through before! We'll get this one too, you'll see!"

"It's not the same this time Jazz!" Danny argued with a hint of hopelessness in his voice, "Every time before this I always had Sam and Tucker to help me out. With the town on indefinite lockdown it's hard enough for just me to get out of the house, and I have the ability to walk through walls!" He shook his head; "I never realized just how much I relied on those two until I was forced to go it alone…" In response to his moping, Jazz punched her little brother in the arm. "Ow!" Danny yelped, "What did you do that for?" he asked his sister angrily as he rubbed the aching appendage.

"For being an idiot!" Jazz told him matter-of-factly before playfully mussing up his hair and giving him a hug.

"Gross! Jazz, c'mon, get off!" Danny protested with a blush on his face as he struggled to escape from his sister's iron grip.

With a teasing smile, Jazz released the squirming teen and put her hands on his shoulders before looking him dead in the eye. "You aren't alone, Danny." She said with a tone of utmost sincerity, "Tucker and Sam are still your friends and I am your big sister. No matter what happens, we will always be there for you. Don't you ever forget that."

Danny's blush grew even deeper at his sister's heartfelt words, but he held her gaze and nodded. "Thanks, Jazz." He said, "I don't know what came over me but I'll try to keep it together better than this until we see this thing through." He grinned, "Looks like you might not make such a terrible psychologist after all."

"Ooh, you little…" Jazz fake growled before laughing. Of course, once she got going, it set Danny off until both of the siblings were gasping for breath with tears in their eyes.

"Seriously though," Danny said once he had regained his ability to speak, "thanks Jazz."

"Any time, little brother," the redhead replied, "any time."

"Alright," Danny said with a grimace, "get out of here before all of this sentiment makes me barf." Once again the two siblings shared a laugh, but Jazz did as she was bid and left her brother alone to think. And think he did—until he let out a shiver and an icy breath escaped his mouth. "Really?" he groaned, "I can't even get one night to myself?"

With a sour expression, the half-ghost grabbed the Fenton Thermos from its hiding spot in the disaster-zone known as his closet, transformed into his alter ego and phased through the walls of his house, only to smack face first into the glowing ghost shield surrounding the building. "Ow…" he moaned, "how do I keep forgetting that that's there?" Quickly transforming back into a human, he passed through the anti-ghost barrier and reactivated his ghost powers once outside. "Whichever ghost is behind this is lucky that it's already dead," Danny muttered darkly, "because if it weren't I would probably kill it."

With that said, Danny attached the thermos to his belt and flew off in the direction that his ghost sensing abilities pointed him at his top speed and within five minutes he arrived in the area of town now referred to as 'the dead zone' thanks to the ridiculously high level of ghost activity in the area. Upon his arrival, he was not surprised to see that Skulker was once again free of the Ghost Zone and up to no good—he was however, surprised to see the ghost that attempted so wearily often to turn him into a hunting trophy locked in battle with a winged woman wielding a mace and wearing a strange helmet that resembled a hawk's head.

Deciding that whoever she was, she couldn't be too bad if Skulker was after her, Danny fired an ectoblast that struck the cybernetic spirit in the back of the head, leaving him stunned long enough for the strange woman to use the opening provided to land a crushing blow with her mace that caved in a good portion of Skulker's chest, releasing a discharge of green sparks and forcing him to turn intangible and retreat with a snarl. "What's the matter Skulker?" Danny taunted at the glaring hunter, "having some girl trouble?"

"Accursed whelp!" Skulker growled at the teen, "how dare you interfere with my hunt! Have you no honor?"

"Sorry Tiny, but my sense of fair play ends where hunting people for sport begins." And with that quip, Danny pulled out the thermos and activated it, easily trapping the severely damaged Skulker inside. "Heh, that is still _so_ very satisfying."

Sighing in relief at the unexpected assistance, Shayera flew over to the Danny, and gave him a nod, "Thanks kid," she said, "I had it under control, but that guy is one tough customer. Your distraction was just what I needed."

"Don't mention it," Danny replied, "one question though, who the heck are you?"

Shayera blinked, "Huh," she said, "haven't been asked that question in a while…the name's Shayera Hol, but most people call me Hawkgirl."

"Hawkgirl, huh? I can't imagine why they would call you that." Danny responded with a cheeky grin.

Shayera shook her head with a faint smile, "Little smartass…I recognize you though, you're the one from all of those posters, Inviso-Bill, right?"

Danny groaned, "I'm never going to escape that stupid name am I? My name is Danny. Danny Phantom."

Shayera laughed at the genuine look of anguish the teen's face over the unfortunate name. "Strange, you don't seem to be very dangerous…why is there a death warrant out for you?"

Danny's face grew somber; "I've been fighting the ghosts that appear in this town for a little bit over a year now. For a while, it looked like people were starting to realize that I was on their side until this weird blue light appeared a week ago and ghosts started pouring out of the Ghost Zone en masse and acting way more aggressively. A lot of people got hurt…they blamed me."

Shayera held up her hand in confusion, "Wait a minute," she said, "you said that those lights appeared here a week ago?"

Danny nodded, "It'll be eight days ago tonight."

"That's impossible!" Shayera exclaimed, "The lights appeared just a few hours ago, tonight! That's when this town appeared on the map out of nowhere!"

Danny lifted an eyebrow in confusion, "What do you mean we appeared out of nowhere? This city has been here for the last hundred and fifty years!"

Shayera shook her head, "I'm sorry Danny, but that's not true…until a few hours ago, the spot where this city stands was nothing but wilderness."

Danny pinched his nose and wrinkled his brow in thought. "Maybe this has something to do with the satellites that Tuc…my friend was talking about."

"What satellites, what do you mean?"

"My friend is a huge techno buff…he's pretty much a genius when it comes to things like technology and when the blue light appeared he said that his PDA began receiving dozens of signals from satellites that didn't exist only moments before. We were going to look into it, but when the ghosts invaded, the thought just sort of fell by the wayside."

"If what you say is true, and the lights appeared a week ago for you, then there must be some sort of time dilation effect going on…the Justice League needs to hear about this."

"The who?"

"What do you mean wh…oh, right. The Justice League is a team of the world's greatest heroes, gathered together in the hopes of making the world a safer place."

Danny's glowing eyes lit up even more at the though of a team of superpowered beings. "Wow," he said in a distant voice, "that's so cool! Have you ever saved the world?"

Shayera smirked, "Several times. One time I even killed a god."

"What?"

Shayera couldn't resist ruffling the star-struck teens hair and gave him a smile. "Long story kid, I'll tell you later. For now, we need to focus on the mission at hand. I've heard the phrase 'Ghost Zone' tossed around several times…what is it?"

Shaken out of his reverie, Danny cleared his throat and began to explain the best he could. "Well, I'm not really an expert on it," he began, "if you wanted that you'd have to talk with my p…I mean Jack and Maddie Fenton, they are the ones who constructed the portal to the Ghost Zone. But what I do know it this: the ghost zone is a spiritual dimension that physically coexists with our own—if our world is one side of a coin, then the Ghost Zone is the other side." Danny spouted this information with a faraway expression on his face and in the singsong tone of one who had been told this speech—word for word, many times.

"In this dimension," he continued, "everything consists of various forms of ectoplasm, a substance which is not only matter, but energy as well—a characteristic which explains many of the abilities ghosts are know to possess. There are only two ways to enter and exit this dimension. The first is through the naturally occurring portals that are constantly forming and dissipating between our world and theirs, but those form at random and it is nearly impossible to determine where they will lead."

Shayera nodded as she processed this information. "And the second way?" She asked.

Danny's eyes hardened, "The second way in and out is through the manmade portal in the basement of the Fenton family."

Shayera grinned, "Well that's it then, we use that portal, crack some skulls and see why the ghosts are acting up more than usual."

Eyes widening, Danny shook his head and crossed his arms. "No way!" he exclaimed, "The Ghost Zone is an incredibly dangerous place under normal conditions, but with the way ghosts have been acting up lately, going in there without backup would be suicide!"

Rolling her eyes, Shayera held up her mace and activated its anti-magic field, causing the half-ghost to flinch away from the uncomfortable sensation of having his ghostly powers drained. "Trust me kid, for a job like this, I'm all the backup you'll need."

"Ugh," he said, feeling faint, "what is that thing?" His eyes widened as he remembered her battle with Skulker, "For that matter, how did you hurt Skulker with it? Nothing short of ectoplasmic energy can harm a ghost!"

Shayera grinned, "What you are looking at is a mace made of Nth metal, kid. It's one of the rarest elements in the galaxy and possesses the nifty little property of disrupting magic."

"But ghosts aren't magical beings!"

"Maybe not, but they possess an energy signature close enough to magic for me to harm them with it."

Realization dawning in Danny's eyes, he grinned, "Ghosts can't harm humans in the Ghost Zone," he said, "in that dimension, living beings are the ghosts. But with that mace, even though they can't hit you…"

Shayera's grin turned feral, "I can hit them. You up for a little field trip kiddo?"

Danny smirked as the glow in his eyes intensified, "Sure am. Just let me go and get my permission slip."

(Fentonworks, Basement)

While Danny was busy prepping the Portal for their journey into the Ghost Zone, Shayera looked around the messy lab with growing concern. The haphazard, disorganized clutter of half-finished inventions and other strange machines that looked as if they would sooner explode than serve their intended purpose filled the normally self-assured warrior with a gnawing sense of doubt. "Um, Danny…" she hesitantly asked, "are you absolutely sure that this Portal of yours won't…I don't know, explode or something?"

"Huh," Danny replied, concentration broken, "oh, yeah. Positive. I've gone through the Fenton portal dozens of times. No sweat."

"Right, OK then." Shayera responded with doubt still in her voice. "_Why does that not fill me with any sort of confidence?_"

"Got it!" Danny's voice rang out, and the heavy metal bulkheads of the Portal slid open, revealing a mesmerizing doorway of swirling, pulsating ectoplasmic energy. "Did you get the suit to work with your…uh, wings?"

Shayera looked down at the snug garment with two new holes in the back and sighed before zipping it up and placing the helmet on her head. "Yeah," she replied, "but is this really necessary? I don't see you decked out in a spacesuit!"

Danny nodded, "Unless you want to be another example of what direct contact with this level of ectoplasmic energy does to a living body," he said, pointing at himself, "then I would suggest you wear the suit. Normally we would take the Specter Speeder to pass through the portal, but it's not working right now."

Shayera gulped at the boys words and nodded, "So you…"

"Yeah," he replied, "I got caught in the portal when it first turned on and I sort of…died…mostly."

"Mostly?"

"It doesn't matter right now. Are you ready to go?"

Shayera nodded, "Ready as I'll ever be."

"OK then," Danny said before taking Shayera's hand, "let's go, and be careful—the first step is a doozy."

With those words, the two heroes stepped through the glowing doorway and Shayera let out a gasp at the sight of infinity. Aside from a few floating islands and doors here and there, the Ghost Zone was a green void of vast, unending nothingness. "How can you possibly find your way around this place?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's something isn't it?" Danny replied, keeping a sharp eye out for any unfriendly company, "Fortunately, I've always had a really good sense of direction, and everything here is pretty much static. Before all of this trouble started, I was working on a map of the place."

Shayera nodded, "I can see how that would come in handy in here…wait a minute," she said, sensing something was amiss, "I think I hear something."

"What is it?" Danny asked, nerves on high alert, "I don't hear anything."

"My species have evolved much sharper senses than humans," she replied, as she scanned the void for any sign of hostiles, "it's nearly impossible to catch us off guard."

Suddenly, the two were attacked by shrieking black creatures with glowing red eyes that appeared to be made of living shadow—acting on instinct, Danny pressed a button on his companion's suit and took a deep breath and let out a deafening wail which released enormous levels of energy, causing the shrieking monstrosities to dissipate into nothing. Danny's ghost form briefly flickered out before restoring itself, but it was obvious to Shayera that whatever the teen had done had drained a great deal of energy from him.

Seeing her ghostly escort open his mouth to talk but hearing nothing, Shayera quickly pressed the same button that Danny had pressed before releasing his attack. "What was that?" she exclaimed, interrupting whatever it was that he had to say, "And what were those things?"

Danny took a moment to catch his breath before responding. "I have no idea what those things were, I've never seen anything like them before."

"OK, so what did you do to them?"

"I only have one area effect attack: my ghostly wail…unfortunately, it takes a lot out of me and it hurts everything around me unless they have the spectral noise filters like the ones in your suit that I activated before I let loose."

"Thanks for that, by the way."

"Don't mention it." Danny replied with a weak grin, "But I probably shouldn't have done that…thanks to that little stunt I'm running on fumes and we still don't know anything about why the ghosts here have been so aggressive lately."

"Perhaps I can enlighten you as to why." An aristocratic voice rang out from the distance, causing Shayera to gasp in horror when she got a look at its source. A middle-aged man with glowing red eyes, severe features and a snow-white goatee floated in front of them with a superior look on his face.

"Zod…" Shayera breathed in terror at the sight of the ruthless Kryptonian general who had nearly succeeded in conquering the planet and murdering the Man of Steel.

"Ah, Shayera Hol, the Thanagarian." Zod addressed her contemptuously, "I am honored that you remember me. How many years has it been? It is so very difficult to tell time within the confines of the dimension the son of Jor-El trapped me in."

"Hey Hawkgirl," Danny growled, his eyes glowing poison green, "you know this jerk?"

"Get behind me Danny," Shayera ordered the teen, "In your condition, this is not an enemy that you can face."

Zod laughed, "How correct you are, Thanagarian. Unfortunately for you, you are only partially correct. With the powers I now possess, I am an enemy which no living being could _ever _hope to face." Arrogant smirk turning into a snarl, Zod shot a powerful beam of energy at Shayera, surprising her and knocking her unconscious in one blow.

Danny's eyes widen in shock, "That beam…that's..."

Zod smiled, "That is correct boy, my time in this realm has gifted me with the very same powers that you possess…Danny Phantom."

"How do you…"

"How do I know who you are? Simple, my new ghostly subjects have been so very informative over the last seven days. I have been biding my time, mastering my new powers and sending out spies to collect information on the world before I make my glorious return!" In and instant, Zod teleported in front of Danny and dealt him a powerful blow to the midsection which knocked straight into human form.

"It would be so very easy to kill you both right now," Zod told the gasping Danny, "but I wish for the two of you to deliver a message for me. Tell the son of Jor-El that Zod has returned…and that this time, I will see him _kneel_." With this message given to Danny, the Kryptonian general grabbed the two beaten heroes and flung them through the portal at high speed, sending them crashing through the lab like rag dolls before the heavy steel entrance slammed shut. 

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**Next time on Convergence: The City Of Townsville**

**AN: OK guys, the story's picking up some steam now. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or whatever, use that review space underneath this comment. Later!**


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